


A Desert Flower

by Greye



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, FemaleNaruto - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 16:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10723098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greye/pseuds/Greye
Summary: Naru has an unexpected visit at the hospital from Gaara during the Chunin Exams.  What could he possibly want?  Other than to kill her, of course.Female Naruto (Naru).  Naru/Gaara





	A Desert Flower

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lady_Lullaby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Lullaby/gifts).



> A request from Lady_Lullaby. One-shot. May become a two-shot if enough people want it.

Naru stared up at the ceiling, counting the tiles for the eighth time that morning. She felt weak, weaker than she could ever remember feeling. Everything ached, and it was an effort just to reach to the side table for water. Her fight with Neji had been the most intense of her life. She knew that she had given everything she had to that battle.

  
So why did she feel so...unsatisfied?

  
Her mind turned over the fight, analyzing it much like she imagined Sakura would have in a fruitless attempt to identify how she might have fought differently. If only she were as smart as Sakura, maybe she could have won the fight with Neji. It wasn't in her nature though, to prepare a strategy. A sigh escaped her.  Maybe she ought to take a lesson from Shikamaru, that guy was always planning and scheming. There was a time she looked down on that type of fighting, preferring raw strength and skill.  She was learning though that strategizing  _was_ a skill, and one she sorely lacked.  But lying here worrying at it wasn't going to help anything.

  
Maybe she should go see Lee. He was here too--they could talk about their matches, compare notes. Heck, she might even learn something.  It was something to do, anyway, apart from counting the ceiling tiles for a ninth time. With a groan, Naru pushed against her thin mattress and levered her battered body up, swinging her legs over the side of her bed. She reached out for the rolling rod that held her liquids to steady her, and used it like a staff to pull herself up off the bed. It hurt. Every nerve-ending felt fried and raw, which she knew was a side effect of Neji's gentle-fist style of fighting. It totally sucked. A sudden surge of sympathy for Hinata rose in her. She knew that her soft spoken friend had endured even more of Neji's skill.  Perhaps she would try visiting her as well.

  
She took a few steps toward the door and paused. Her brow creased in a slight frown and she looked down, feeling something under her bare feet. There was sand. Just a few grains. What-

  
The room door slid open and Naru's eyes widened as she saw in the hallway the boy who had all but declared himself an enemy of herself and all of the Leaf Village. Her blue eyes narrowed and, forgetting her weakened state for a moment, she asked fiercely, "What are _you_ doing here?" Her blue eyes flashed as she took in his usual dead-eyed expression, folded arms, and ever-present gourd over his shoulder.

  
Gaara's eyes opened wide in surprise, the first expression beside bloodlust or indifference she could ever recall seeing on his face. He clearly wasn't expecting to find her awake, which just placed Naru on further guard.

  
"I-" Gaara tried to answer, but Naru cut him off.

  
" _What_. You _what_  exactly? Planned to kill me while I slept?" She glared at him, and it belatedly occurred to her that if he wanted to kill her, her current state of consciousness wouldn't stop him.  Still, she wouldn't go down without a fight.  The trembling in her muscles put the lie to that thought.

  
Gaara looked taken aback, before vehemently shaking his head. "No...that is not why I am here." He took a step forward and hesitated when she took a defensive step back. "May I...come in?" Naru eyed him suspiciously.  She was on the verge of telling him _hell no_ , but then she looked into his face.  There was something there she had never seen before.  An earnestness in his eyes maybe.  Perhaps it was just a trick, but Naru was nothing if not a curious one.  She hesitated, before cautiously nodding.

  
Despite her wariness, she wanted to know why this demon son of the Sand Village wanted to speak to her. Gaara edged slowly into the room, closing the door softly behind him before turning to face her. She took in the dark circles around his eyes indicating acute insomnia, and noticed really for the first time that he actually had rather nice eyes. They were a blue so pale she thought they bordered on grey; she had never seen that color before.

  
"I came because..." Again Gaara hesitated, and Naru struggled with her impatience.   _What_ already? "I wanted to see you." He spoke slowly, his words thoughtful and deliberate. Naru's eyesbrows rose and she stared at him in shock.  He appeared to be waiting for her response, so she gathered herself and asked,

"See me for what?"  What could he possible want, apart from a fight?

  
Gaara looked relieved she hadn't yelled at him again, and Naru tilted her head in curiosity. What was his game? Gaara of the Sand was lethal, no doubt about that, and while she was confident she could take him (mostly), she knew she stood no chance in her current state. Her mind flashed back to his battle with Rock Lee, and she had to suppress a shiver. Gaara had destroyed Lee, utterly.

  
"Well, Naru, I wanted to see...how you were."

  
She almost missed his soft words, and did a double take. Her mouth fell open incredulously. Gaara rushed on, as if afraid she would keep him from finishing. In fact, Naru didn't think she was currently capable of speech.

  
"You fought hard against Hyuga," he said, and she felt oddly proud that he would acknowledge this, "and I admired that. His arrogance nearly cost him the match and I think the match was far closer than he even realized. Still, I wanted to see how you were doing. You looked pretty rough after the fight." Naru continued to stare at him, and Gaara averted his eyes.

  
Holy Konoha. Was he _blushing_? She felt like smacking herself in the face to see if this was all some crazy fever dream.  If she didn't already hurt like hell all over, she might have done just that.

  
"Well, anyway Naru, I hope you're back in fighting form soon." A smile lingered around his mouth even though his eyes stayed down. "I do, after all, want to fight you."  
His words brought her a further feeling of pride, and she found herself grinning fiercely in response. She was still angry over Lee, but she was eager to test herself against the boy who had defeated him. "As soon as I'm healed, you better believe we'll fight." Her words were a promise, and Gaara nodded in response.

  
It felt like the conversation was over, though Naru knew that she had missed something rather important here as she stared at Gaara. What had driven him to approach her this way?  "There was one more thing..." He murmured.  Gaara shuffled his feet awkwardly before reaching behind his back.

  
She instantly tensed up as the cork eased from his gourd and a little sand poured out, but she relaxed when she saw that he wasn't about to attack her with it. The sand moved slowly through the air behind his back, and her eyes watched its passing, almost mesmerized by its movement. Finally, the remaining sand returned to the gourd and the cork replaced itself.

  
When Gaara brought his hands out from behind his back, she gasped.

  
There in his hand was a beautiful glass flower, though unlike any she had ever seen. Instead of wide petals, it had extensions that looked almost like needles spreading out from a green center. The stem was green too, but the petals, or needles, were a flaming red that matched Gaara's hair, like little fingers of flame reaching up. He extended it out to her, and Naru took it out of reflex, fingers holding it gently. "It's beautiful..." She couldn't stop herself from saying. Her eyes lifted to look at him in surprise, "How did you-?"

  
Gaara explained. "Glass comes from sand. I can make sand do what I want. With enough pressure and friction, I can make glass." He watched her as her eyes drifted back to the delicate flower in her hands. "This is what we call the desert's paintbrush. It is a flower that we see in the desert, and when I first saw you I was reminded of it. You are so loud and full of life, so vibrant - even when others would seek to diminish you. You're a survivor, like this flower, but equally beautiful."

  
Now Naru felt a blush rise in her cheeks as she looked at Gaara again in pleased surprise.

  
"Now," said Gaara, again smiling faintly, "I have a match to get to. My opponent strikes me as an impatient sort. If you'll excuse me." Naru nodded wordlessly as Gaara slipped out of the room, her eyes already drawn back to the flower she cradled in her hands.

  
Gaara of the Sand.

  
She shuffled back to her bed and tenderly laid the flower down on her bedside table before crawling back under the covers. That was entirely enough excitement for one day, she thought. She could go visit Lee later. Her eyes drifted to gaze at the flower the boy from the Sand had rendered for her, and was startled to feel a warmth inside for this strange, dangerous boy. Perhaps there was a little more to him after all.


End file.
